Why, what and how to measure and improve the security of networks (a snapshot of the current situation of security metrics and the way forward)

Abstract

Networks in today's scenario are vulnerable to many threats. Cyber-criminals exploit the existing vulnerabilities of the networks to their advantage. The answers to queries like how susceptible the networks are, what security solutions are required may lie embedded in security metrics. An organisation can enhance the security of its IT infrastructure only after assessment and evaluation of the present scenario. SDN's architecture with centralised control and availability of active programming interfaces makes it an ideal choice to devise novel security metrics. The challenges in finding data sources and defining parameters for metrics formulation have motivated the authors to analyse the existing work and find gaps. Our work is unique and different from other studies in the sense it not only critically analysed the existing work but also propose much-needed ingredients of security metrics. The current work suggests a new framework to design simple, quantifiable, practical and customised security metrics for networks.